


I'm Bad Behavior, But I Do It In The Best Way

by cyrene



Series: Long Live [8]
Category: Harry Potter - J. K. Rowling
Genre: Coming Out, Firewhiskey, Found Families, Gen, M/M, that relationship tag is not what you think it is, think of it as the beginning of a slow burn
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-09
Updated: 2020-12-09
Packaged: 2021-03-10 05:27:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,271
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27978858
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/cyrene/pseuds/cyrene
Summary: Firewhiskey, my friends, is a potent drink.
Relationships: Sirius Black/Remus Lupin
Series: Long Live [8]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/2026196
Comments: 3
Kudos: 21





	I'm Bad Behavior, But I Do It In The Best Way

**Author's Note:**

> Your songs for this fic are ["Misbehaviour" by the Vaccines](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xKJeQpa3K0U), ["Hey Brother" by Avicii](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=69Fb6XozEx8), and, for Sirius, ["Rebel Rebel" by David Bowie.](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1IQdhUd4V1o) Title from ["Immortals" by Fall Out Boy](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9PxOanFjxQ).
> 
> Don't get too excited about that relationship tag. This is a slow burn, folks, and you're in it for the long haul. Also, this story is intended to follow canon, did I mention that yet? So, yeah, if you like angst, you're in the right series.

Sneaking back into the dorm was as easy as eating cake for the Marauders at this point. They were getting larger by this point, so only two of them could fit under the cloak at a time, and this time it had been James and Sirius. Their mission: go to Hogsmede and retrieve Remus’s birthday chocolate, then down to the kitchens to obtain a feast fit for the occasion.

What they came back with was firewhiskey.

“That’s... a very big bottle,” Remus said apprehensively. He could see by Peter’s face that he agreed, but the other boy said nothing.

“Listen, Professor,” Sirius said, pointing his finger in Remus’s face, “you only turn fifteen once. I, as the eldest of all of you –” there was a collective groan at this, which Sirius ignored – “should know, in my infinite wisdom.”

“Sirius, Wisdom is your dump stat,” Remus said mock-seriously. “You put it all in Charisma.”

Sirius preened, as though that had been a wise decision on his part.

“So,” Peter wanted to know, “how are we going to do this?”

The boys sat on the floor like a four-pointed star, a shot glass in front of each of them and the bottle in the middle.

“Let’s make this easier,” suggested James with a grin. “Never have I ever... shoplifted. Now, if you have, you have to take a drink.”

Remus, wide-eyed, picked up his glass and eyed it. It smelled strong and sharp and foul, like a potion from Madame Pomfrey. Slowly, he brought the glass to his lips and tilted it back, and his mouth was awash in flame. Remus swallowed quickly, sputtering as he dropped the glass on the floor. His friends were all staring at him in amazement, as he coughed and pounded his chest.

“Fuck,” he said, “that was like fire.”

“What on earth did you steal, Moony?” Peter demanded.

“Half Magic by Edward Eager. I was fucking ten, okay?”

“Wait, wait, wait,” James said, waving his arms, “that’s the one with the magic charm and the four kids?”

“Yeah.”

“You’re telling me we all only enjoyed that classic masterpiece because you _stole_ it?! Moony, you dog! It’s your turn now, if there’s anything you _haven’t_ done!”

Remus laughed, and said, “Well, never have I ever kissed a girl.”

James – a girl at one of his parents’ Christmas parties – and Peter – a _Muggle_ girl while on vacation with his mum and Lila – drank then, while Sirius made a face like he’d got a bad Every-Flavor Bean.

“Never have I ever seen a girl I’d like to kiss,” Sirius said with disgust, even though it wasn’t his turn.

“Mate,” said Peter, after taking his second shot, “have you ever considered that you’re just not that into women?”

“Of course Sirius likes girls!” James protested, after taking his second shot. “He’s just picky, aren’t you, Young Master Black?”

Sirius winced and shrugged.

“Let him be,” Remus said quietly. “It’s Peter’s turn.”

Never Have I Ever quickly turned into Truth or Dare, which turned into James and Peter under the cloak with the Map, off to the Astronomy Tower to frighten the wits out of the couples who went up there to make out, while Sirius and Remus waited back in the dormitory.

“It’s okay to like boys,” Remus said finally, to cut through the silence before Sirius could do something ridiculous. “It is 1975, after all.”

Sirius’s head whipped around, eyes wide. “I know,” he said, but he said it quietly. He busied himself pouring them each a shot and didn’t look at Remus.

“Never have I ever,” mused Remus, “kissed a boy.”

Sirius did not drink.

“How do I know I like boys if I’ve never kissed one?” he asked, fidgeting with the end of his t-shirt.

“How do you fucking know you don’t like girls, if you’ve never kissed one?” Remus asked. “You just know, I think. And that’s okay. Here,” he said, shooting back the shot much easier than he had earlier in the night, “take your fucking drink, Sirius. Go on.”

Sirius tilted his head back, the long column of his pale throat exposed as he swallowed the firewhiskey.

“All right, Professor,” he said, “what’s next?”

Remus said, with some amusement, “Well, I was just going to do it, but since you insist on calling me Professor you’re going to have to sit through a lecture now. I’m going to kiss you now, Sirius. That way you’ll finally fucking know for sure, and we won’t be the only two Marauders who’ve never done it. Does Mr. Lupin have Mr. Black’s consent?”

Sirius just nodded once, a harsh jerk. His eyes were dark, and Remus could not read what was going on behind them. He was frightened, but he was a Gryffindor after all, so he leaned forward and pressed his lips firmly to Sirius’s. It took a moment, as they were both adjusting to this new sensation, but then Remus moved his lips and Sirius took off.

They sat there like that for a full minute, hands to themselves, just connected at the mouths, before Remus reluctantly pulled back and said, “So, then. It’s the boys for you, is it?”

Sirius nodded, his grey eyes aflame in a way that frightened Remus almost as much as the realization he’d just had about himself. He tucked that down into his heart, because being a werewolf was bad enough without being bisexual to boot.

But, Reader, if we could just break down the walls for point of view for a moment. I promise it’s important, because You need to know that this moment, right here, marked the second time Sirius Black fell in love. The first time, the time he fell in love with music, was nothing compared to this one.

Reader, Sirius’s heart beat as fast as a little hummingbird’s, and his palms were sweating as he tried to surreptitiously wipe them on his black jeans. He was feeling feelings too fast and wild and intense to categorize them the way Remus did, and it all might have come spilling out of him in the next moment, had James and Peter not arrived then, stumbling through the door laughing and holding their sides.

“I have an idea,” Sirius said instead. He stumbled over to his trunk, where he scattered the contents all over the floor in search for a particular scroll of parchment. “Found this, last time I was at Grimmauld Place in a book on blood magic. It’s a spell. It’ll...” suddenly Sirius looked insecure, but he forged ahead. “It’ll make us all brothers. For real.”

“That’s got to be illegal,” Remus argued.

“Not all blood magic is illegal,” James pointed out.

“From the library at Grimmauld Place?” Peter pointed out.

“Gentlemen!” Sirius said, with only the slightest of slurs in his voice. “We don’t have to if we don’t want to. It was just a dumb idea.”  
  
“Not dumb,” said Remus of all people, his voice small and fierce. “What do we need?”

They actually had most of the ingredients with them, for use on other projects. It was a very old spell, and therefore the ingredients were quite simple. The blood component squicked them all out a bit, but no one was willing to admit it in front of the others.

As they held hands and recited the words that would make them all brothers, Remus felt fuller than he had in the longest time. This was his home now, these were his brothers. They had been there for each other through thick and thin, and this proved that it would always, always be so.


End file.
